House approves bill to require livestreams and archives of many public meetings

The House on April 21 approved HB 6 15, a bill from Speaker Pro Tem Mike Johnson that would require many non‑elected boards and commissions to make meetings available via live streaming and to archive recordings.

Johnson said the change is about availability as well as transparency: recording meetings is not enough if the public cannot access them live. The bill applies to entities above population thresholds the amendment preserved; smaller municipalities and parishes below the thresholds were exempted or given flexibility.

Members raised operational questions. Representative Cox and others asked how larger parishes with multiple simultaneous meetings and constrained wide‑area networks would handle concurrent streams; Johnson said the statute includes leeway for technological impossibility and that where a web page is unavailable entities may use common social platforms such as YouTube. Representative Green, among others, noted that a cell phone on a tripod is often sufficient to provide basic access and called the bill a “good bill.”

An amendment adopted on the floor clarified the population limits and allowed alternative streaming approaches to avoid imposing undue costs. The bill passed final reading on the House floor with a wide margin; the tally recorded was 97 yays and 0 nays.

What’s next: enactment steps will follow the legislature’s schedule; agencies and local boards will need to review their technical capacity and notice language to comply.

"Availability matters just as much as transparency," Speaker Pro Tem Mike Johnson said on the floor.